I never wear gloves in the flower garden. I prefer to feel the rich, cool store bought dirt as it sifts between my fingers. I even like the clammy, stubborn Georgia red clay that I have to dig through first. I looked at my pretty pink fingernails this morning and promised them I would be careful as I began to transplant hostas from the front yard to the back.
Middle daughter, Leslie and her handsome fiancé, David had just returned home to Virginia from a lovely – too short – activity filled visit here in Carrollton. As usual, we went for pedicures and even took David along for his very first experience. I used to get my hands done at the same time. But I’ve given up manicures for pottery, painting and dirt digging.
Leslie took my hands in hers and tsked tsked at my bare, brittle fingernails. Since I wouldn’t agree to a manicure, she suggested that I let her do them with Kiss glue on nails. We were going to the drugstore when we left Nova Nails so I agreed to check them out. They were cheap enough and I found some cute pink ones that sort of matched my glistening, sandal worthy toes.
It took Leslie about ten minutes to apply the new nails. I even polished up my wedding rings so that they could shine on the new background that is my left hand. Only one nail had to be redone. I said it was crooked. Leslie was sure I had arthritis and that it was my finger that was crooked. Thankfully, it turned out that I was right and she was wrong. (Listen to your Mother, Leslie! She’s always right.)
Anyway, back to the hosta replanting. I had to dig deep to get to the roots. We’ve had a lot of rain in the last couple of days and so I thought they would come out easily. But the mixture of good soil and Georgia red clay created sort of a vortex that sucked my hands down and made horrible noises as I pulled on the hostas. I finally got them up and into a pot and carried them to the back yard. As I brushed away the mud, I realized I had lost a nail from the middle finger of my left hand. Wedding rings are fine in case anyone is worried, but they probably need to get cleaned again.
Dan saw my post on Facebook about my sad missing nai
l. I wondered if planting fake fingernails is how fake plants are propagated. Dan sent me a message with this picture and told me to keep digging. He thinks it will save us money on both nails and plants. He’s a funny, funny man.
My hand as it looks now. Ignore the paint on the other nails. That’s a whole other story.